These six states were Corfù (Kerkyra), Ithaca(Ithaki), Paxò(paxoi/paxos), Cephalonia, Zante (Zakynthos) and Santa Maura (Lefkas).

At a meeting of the British Cabinet in 1862, Foreign Secretary Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston decided to cede the islands to Greece.

The decision to cede the islands was also influenced by the accession to the Greek throne of the Danish prince George, a committed Anglophile.

Indeed, in a referendum in November 1862, the Greeks had elected Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, as their king, partly in the hope of receiving the Ionian Islands.

After long negotiations with Greece, the Treaty of London was signed by Greek delegate Charilaos Trikoupis on 29 March 1864.